Not Immortal
by eligile
Summary: AU - People are unable to die. But somehow one girl, Yuzu, manages to slip beyond the realm of the living, inciting a revolution of death normality. Mei works to get society on the standard track of life as we know it, but at what cost?
1. Chapter 1

**So I got the idea for this fic while attending a presentation about sudden death concerning cardiac rhythm devices at the 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference. (Shout out if there's anyone out there that went to the meeting.) You shoulda seen me, while all these serious professionals were contemplating a quote that was said I had an epiphany and immediately started scribbling beautiful yuri fanfiction ideas in my notebook. Oh, young college kids.**

**By the way, the quote, more or less, was: "We can't stop people from dying, or we'd all be out of a job." True dat for a lot of people in this field! **

**I don't own Citrus or its characters. What angst there wouldn't be if I did, lol.**

* * *

I study death. Why? Because no one wants to talk about it, and I need to know the meaning of dying. Someone has to have that knowledge, whether or not anything is done with it.

This world does not know of death. People here cannot die; our history has dictated that we are destined to live forever. Nobody knows where this comes from, or what is the future of it. However, using terms concerning "mortality" and the like is unlawful, as it acknowledges the unrealistic idea of not living forever. At least the people here are humble enough to demote themselves to a humanly status, rather than likening themselves to gods.

Because personally, I think living forever is bullshit.

I don't know how death sparked my interest, and it's not like I _want_ to die as it stands right now, but I could never stop thinking about how different this world would be if life had an ending. Yes, people manage to distance themselves from the image of divinity, and long lives are good, but… No matter how hard anyone that may feel the same way I do has tried, death just does not wish to befall us. Attempts to kill anybody, oneself or otherwise, somehow doesn't work. It's a phenomenon that has not been figured out, and all it does is put people in the hospital with minimal recovery time.

Whatever the case, I'm moderately content with just living this life that has been set out for me. While I do have college studies to attend to, I can still fulfill my intrigue, and I have forever to do it.

* * *

Mei leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head. She had spent the last couple of hours catching up on homework because instead of doing so earlier, she was in the lab, working on yet another experiment in hopes of understanding why the world was how it was. She seemed to be getting nowhere despite hours upon hours of study.

Although she graduated at the top of her high school class and remained on the President's Honor Roll for the past two years, Mei didn't want to take the chance that all the stress would put a damper on her GPA.

_Then what would people think of me? They'll think I was slacking off, therefore undeserving of academic honor and top university resources._

The black-haired girl sighed and rose from her seat. She threw on a coat and shoes, and left her room. Some time walking around in the brisk air of a fall evening would help to relax her. There weren't a lot of people out, even with the sun still visible in the sky and being right by the events arena where basketball games and concerts were held. Seeing the expansive tract of the campus lawn devoid of many students, as opposed to the bustling crowd present during the daytime, and lit so beautifully by the setting sun was quite satisfying.

Mei walked along the sidewalk, thoughts running about her mind. Not too far to her right was a small group of people enjoying a playful game of frisbee. One guy threw it to a girl across the field; the disc flew way over the girl's head in Mei's direction, and the girl ran after it, calling out to alert Mei of the incoming object.

"Hey, heads up!"

Mei lifted her gaze to see the frisbee whirl towards her. Reacting on instinct, she raised her hand at the moment the disc slapped into her palm, right before her face. The girl soon reached Mei, breath coming out slightly ragged.

"Hi… Um, sorry about that! Nice catch though!" She grinned widely.

Mei only stared at the girl, taking in her blonde locks pulled back in a ponytail to the bright greenness of her eyes. "You all should get better at playing so you don't pose the risk of hurting others," she eventually said coolly.

The blonde let out a chuckle. "Heh, yeah, I guess so." She tentatively held out her hand for the frisbee. After a moment, Mei handed it to her. They paused, studying each other's eyes for a second before the blonde smiled and ran back to her friends. Mei's gaze lingered on the girl for a while longer before continuing down the sidewalk.

Not even a minute later there was a commotion on the field back where Mei had come from. She turned her head around to see the frisbee players gathered around someone on the ground. Squinting her eyes, Mei saw that it was the blonde that had just come up to her.

_Hmph, it doesn't concern me. There are others who can help her; I don't need to—_

"Sh-she doesn't have a pulse!" someone exclaimed.

Mei snapped to attention. Yeah, people got injured all the time. Yeah, people sometimes slipped into comas. There was never any worry that the person would die, of course, but lacking a pulse? That's a rarity that still never failed to scare everybody. Even with all the more serious pains, there was always a pulse, signifying the enduring existence of the being. On the sparse occasion that someone lost their pulse (only two or three times that anyone could remember), though, they would recover it after a few seconds. Every time.

The serious student rushed back to the group. "What happened?"

"We don't know! She just fainted! She was perfectly healthy, and now…" a slender girl with short hair and glasses declared, voice shaking.

Mei knelt down to examine the collapsed student. "How could she just pass out? No one just falls and all of a sudden their pulse is gone." She could feel the girl's body grow colder as each second passed by. The change was subtle, but definitely still something to be felt. There was absolutely no way something like this could happen, this was too close to death…

Someone from the group stood up and reached for his cell phone. He called for help; luckily, the health center wasn't too far away and there was an ambulance on the scene within minutes. Medics stepped out of the vehicle, ordering the crowd to back away. Once they reached the girl, however, even they were confounded—their movements were slow and unsteady, as if they were unsure of any action to take. Eventually, the medics began to load the girl into the ambulance without much care to her.

"Wait. Take her to the first floor lab in the organic studies building. It'll be…better for her," Mei interjected. The medics halted their motions and gawked at the black-haired student.

One medic, seemingly the oldest with gray weaving through his hair and bushy beard, turned towards Mei. "Ah, Mei Aihara… I've heard of you, the top student in the biochemistry major." He crossed his arms. "But I still don't think you're in any position to tell us what to do."

Mei leveled an icy glare at the man. "And exactly what else are you going to do? Bring her to the health center and try to find out what's wrong with her? I can tell you right now, she's—"

"Hey!" The man grabbed her arm. "Look, it's our job to help people who have been hurt. I would never turn my back on an injured person. Although in this case…" He let go of Mei and lowered his voice. "I guess it's probably best to just trust you." He instructed the other medics to resume loading the blonde into the ambulance and that they were, in fact, going to the organic studies building. Mei hopped into the back of the vehicle, sitting down by the blonde girl.

"What am I doing…?" the man muttered under his breath as he got in the driver's seat.

The short ride was quiet; the two other medics tended negligibly to the unconscious student, almost afraid to touch her. Mei visually examined everything about the girl, from her face, to her arms, to her stomach, to her feet. There weren't any observable imperfections that would explain why she had abruptly fainted, but Mei felt an odd aura surrounding the girl. It couldn't be described; it was just…there.

* * *

The blonde girl lay on one of the metal tables in the lab, still unconscious. Once they had got to the lab and everyone else had left—presumably due to feeling uncomfortable and uncertain, though they were still right outside the room—Mei found that she really couldn't do anything, either. It was as if her brain and body refused to cooperate with each other, ideas running through her head but nothing being physically done.

_I never thought I'd get to this point. I did tell them to bring her here, but… What was I actually expecting to do?_

Mei had already come to the conclusion that the girl was dead. It was such a strange idea to grasp, one that she had been trying to understand for a while now, but still an exceedingly long way from mastering. How could she know what to do when this was the _one_ thing that had never taken place in history, the _one_ thing that haunted yet intoxicated her?

She took a deep breath and laid a hand on the girl's fully pallid face, immediately drawing her hand back. The skin was frigid. As far as Mei knew dead people weren't supposed to get that cold. Nothing was _ever_ supposed to get that cold, not even somebody standing out in the snow in the middle of winter overnight with no clothes on.

However, there was something about that chill that interested Mei, inviting her to touch the girl's skin again. The temperature was just as low this time, if not lower, but the instant that Mei's fingertips made contact, the black-haired student's vision flashed. A fleeting illumination. Mei stepped back and blinked. The room had not changed, nor had the girl or even Mei herself.

_So then what was that?_ Mei thought.

She cautiously approached the girl again. There was a pattern of noise so soft, that Mei could barely hear it—a sort of airy sound coming from the blonde. Was her chest…moving? Mei slowly lifted her fingers to the girl's cheek.

It was warm.


	2. Chapter 2

Honestly, the girl with the black hair kinda intimidated me. Like, I'm just asking for the frisbee back, asking _nicely_ and complimenting her at the same time. And she had the gall to say that we should get better at playing? Are you kidding me? I thought, "_Hello_, I'm oh so sorry that our skill levels aren't up to par with your expectations that you couldn't have just not been in the wrong place at the wrong time." But I didn't say that because, hey, it's not like I'm going to go all-out raging on a stranger who at least didn't totally flip out about almost getting hit in the face. Plus she was, um, cute. Yeah, she's a bit pretty.

So despite wanting to look at her a bit more (you know, in case I ever ran into her around campus again I could recognize her, for reasons) I just smiled and headed back to my friends. But then I went to throw the disc onto the next person and…

Some shit went down.

It was as if all of a sudden someone punched out my eyes and threw me into the air, so that I was floating in absolute darkness. Oh, and pain. I recall a lot of pain. Not like an ache you get when you accidently slam your toe into a corner or even drop a beaker of acid on yourself. This was more like… I'm not sure exactly, like an inner torment that relentlessly tortured my body and soul, whatever that actually means. I can't truly explain it, but there was definitely hurt. But like…a calm sort of hurt. I never thought suffering could be peaceful, but it was.

The only other thing I could sense was a beat inside of me coming to a halt—I realized that my fucking heart stopped! I'm pretty sure that meant something entirely too wrong for this world! There was no more warmth circulating throughout my body, and I think that's when I felt myself getting colder. Try having someone lower the thermostat to negative million degrees so you gradually freeze, all while your other senses are completely useless. Not fun at all.

And then I heard her voice. It was that girl who caught the frisbee, the pretty one with the silky black hair. I'd remember that voice, even if it was kinda distant and removed. That was the only thing I could hear, so I tried to focus on it. But after a sentence or so there was an emptiness, and when I heard her voice again it was fainter. Though anything would be good enough to get my mind off of whatever else was happening, and again I just concentrated on her words.

But then she stops talking again, leaving me to fill my mind with only the pain and the cold. Gee, thanks, little miss you-guys-suck-at-frisbee. Way to help me with whatever the hell was going on!

Although after a while, I felt something on my cheek. Was that her? I couldn't have been too sure—my face was so cold that the contact, if there really was any and I wasn't imagining things, was basically numb to me. Ehh, I didn't really give a damn at that point. I just wanted it to happen again so I could tell if it was, in fact, that girl—

Ookay, there it was. That contact, this time I knew for sure it was her. Though I had no idea what on earth the sudden bright light was. Being submerged in utter darkness for who knows how long and unexpectedly seeing a flare of blinding light doesn't help anybody's consciousness.

Wait. Were those…_thuds_ I could feel in my chest? And air brushing through my nose? And _warmth_ _everywhere_?

That girl. Her hand to my face… I wanted to see it.

* * *

Little by little, Yuzu cracked open her eyes. Her vision was somewhat blurry, but she could make out a curtain of black hair hanging over her. Just as her eyesight was beginning to sharpen, and Yuzu could almost tell that it was Mei's hand touching her face, the other girl retracted her arm in uncertainty.

"You're awake."

Yuzu sat up on the table, quickly studying her surroundings before returning her attention to the girl next to her. "So… What happened? Because I was on the field, then everything went dark and I had this extreme discomfort…" She stopped speaking when she noticed Mei staring back at her with a mysterious expression. The lavender-eyed student crossed her arms.

"You weren't just asleep. I'm fairly certain that you died and—"

The blonde widened her eyes. "I d-died?!" She jerked her body towards Mei so fast, that the table she was on tilted to the side, and the wheels slipped to bring the table further down.

"Oh shit—!"

Yuzu's exclamation was muffled from her face burying into the fabric of Mei's shirt and the reverberating clangs of the table hitting the floor. Her feet haphazardly found some ground and she clung onto Mei's arms; Mei reflexively did the same.

The door flew open, the older medic from earlier setting foot into the room. "What was that? Is everything…?" His eyes landed on Yuzu, who was straightening up her body but still latching on to the other girl. The medic shakily pointed a finger at her. "Y-You're… You're ali… a-alive…!"

Mei glanced up at the man in time to see him crumple to the floor. The other medics hastened to his side, kneeling down and trying to get him to wake up. One of the medics, a young, slightly sunburnt female with her hair tightly wound in a high bun, wandered her gaze over to the two students and immediately went pale.

"W-We're just going to, um, take Mr. Ryo here to…to get s-some help," the lady stuttered, wrapping her arms around the barely conscious older man and lifting him up with the help of the other medic (who starting turning his head towards the younger girls in the room, but the woman next to him gently slapped his face away and whispered, "Don't look."). "No w-worries, he'll be o-okay," she announced to the others. The two medics moved out the door. "Can't say the same for me though…" she muttered under her breath, earning a concerned look from man helping her.

Upon hearing the door close, Yuzu let go of the girl she was grabbing onto and scrutinized her face. "Are you saying I actually…died?"

"From what I can gather, yes." Mei stepped back and leaned against one of the other metal tables.

"But that's—"

"Impossible, obviously. I know that much, but nothing about how or why it actually happened."

"And not only did I _die_ but now I'm alive again! Like, how the hell did that happen too?" Yuzu grew quiet. "Did you…bring me back to, uh, life?"

"I have no idea if I _did_ anything. Besides, why would I revive you if you'd make a better subject otherwise?"

The corner of Mei's lips twitched and Yuzu puffed out her cheeks. "You really shouldn't say stuff like that! Rude…" The green-eyed girl gave a disgruntled huff and sat herself down on a nearby lab chair.

Mei remained standing, eyeing the blonde with both weariness and fascination. "Could you tell me what happened to you? What did you feel?"

Yuzu furrowed her eyebrows. "Well… I couldn't exactly see, hear, taste, or smell much of anything. Just complete blackness everywhere, pain inside of me, and bitter cold." She watched Mei nod pensively. "It's weird, though… The one thing I _could_ hear was your voice. And I felt your hand on my face. Then there was some strange light, and boom, I guess I'm conscious again."

"You heard only my voice and felt only my touch? Odd…" Mei pushed off of the table and stood in front of Yuzu, leaning in so close that the other girl could feel her breath hitch and blush bloom across her face. Any words Yuzu wanted to say got caught before they could leave her mouth, immobilized by Mei's commanding allure. The other student lifted her hand to cup Yuzu's chin and smoothly brought her face down to meet the blonde's.

Yuzu's first reaction was actually to kiss back, albeit with reserve. She had only kissed someone one other time in her life—her first night at the college dorm, she went to a hall party and met a cute guy (who was, thankfully, truly nice and not a sleaze looking to get some action from naïve freshman girls). After drinks, a lengthy conversation, encouragement from her friends, and more drinks, Yuzu impulsively landed a smooch on the guy's lips. Even though she enjoyed it, past the initial moments of surprise and awkwardness of course, she finally forced herself to break away. To puke and pass out on the guy shortly thereafter, delightfully. Yuzu didn't feel entirely comfortable kissing anybody after that incident. Or partying hard in general.

However, it wasn't the memory of her first kiss that caused Yuzu to lay her hands by Mei's shoulders and gently push the other girl away—_Who does this girl think she is, kissing me out of the blue like that? I mean, yeah I know she's attractive, but for real!_

"W-What are you doing?" Yuzu rose from her seat to level her eyes with Mei's.

"I thought that if I was the only presence you were aware of while you were…out, maybe some direct contact now would change something. Perhaps enlighten me in some way."

"Well you can't just kiss people like that!"

Mei smirked and sat down in the chair next to the one that Yuzu had just been in. "I'm trying to figure things out. That is all."

Yuzu sat back in her chair, rolling it a short distance away from the other student. "So…did you? Figure anything out?"

"…No."

The blonde let out a groan and set her arm on the table, supporting her head with her hand. "Maan this is so messed up… But it doesn't _really_ matter, right? Like, I'm alive now, so can't we just forget all this happened and—"

Mei sprung up, the chair lurching back and nearly tipping over. Yuzu cautiously moved her chair further from the girl. "No! We have to make sense of this! Do you realize how important this is…?"

Her harsh gaze softened, and Yuzu steadily got up from her seat. "Look, I'm sorry about that. But this is all kinda scary for me, you know?" She took a step towards Mei and extended a hand towards her. "I'm Yuzu, by the way. Heh, I realized that we haven't introduced ourselves yet."

The black-haired girl glanced at Yuzu's hand, then back to her face. "…Mei."

She slowly began to raise her arm to return the handshake, Yuzu patiently grinning, when the door opened without warning. A young looking woman in a long lab coat and with a black bob cut strode into the room, flanked by two serious men in glasses.

"You!" the woman called out, pointing at Yuzu. "The one that just died—you're gonna have to come with me. I think it's best to keep you under watch while we figure out everything."

Yuzu set her hands on her hips. "Um, who are you?"

Mei circled around to stand next to Yuzu, speaking faintly. "The head of the biochem department, Dr. Aihara." She then projected her voice to the newcomers. "What exactly are you going to do with her?"

"I was going to take her to my personal lab until the surgeon general could arrive."

"Ichirou Sharma is going to come here?" Mei asked in disbelief.

Dr. Aihara made her way over to the lavender-eyed student and laid an arm on her shoulder. "Oh, that's right, Mei! And what's more, you get to come with me."

Mei's eyes offered a vague twinkle of interest. Yuzu shifted her glance between the two, speaking up. "Uh, hello? You can't decide what to do with me, just like that! Whether or not you want to do some freaky-ass lab testing on me, I'm still human and I have a say in this."

"Darling," the woman started, disconnecting from Mei and positioning her hands firmly on Yuzu's shoulders. "I understand your feelings. But this is the biggest event in the history of medicine, the school, the world—everything. We absolutely _have_ to know more about you. Besides," She put her hands in her pockets, eyes growing darker. "I don't know if you can say that you're human." Dr. Aihara gave a meek smile before beginning to head in the direction of the door. "Come on! These guys will assist you if you have trouble leaving," she called over her shoulder. The two men that had accompanied Dr. Aihara crossed their arms and glared at the students.

"Goddammit, what the fuck is all this!" Yuzu hissed under her breath, clenching her fists. She felt a hand land lightly on her shoulder.

"Yuzu… Please just go. I will make sure that Dr. Aihara doesn't do anything…rash."

Yuzu stared into Mei's eyes. _She seems to be helping me…? Aand for some reason I trust her. I guess I don't have an option, but damn do I just want to go home._ The blonde shrugged off Mei's hand and stomped past the waiting men and out of the room. Mei soon followed, an unreadable expression on her face.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, you guys! Hope y'all liked it :)**

**Note: I just randomly came up with the names "Mr. Ryo" and "Ichirou Sharma," so they're not specific characters in any other story.**


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